Careful, you will cry. The SADDEST moment in animated films

Animations are like life. Sometime there is happiness in them sometimes there is sorrow. And that’s a good thing. After all, animated films don’t have to be just entertainment for little and big kids. They can also carry educational potential, and if they are to teach children about life, they must be both funny and sad. After all, sadness accompanies us in life just as much as happiness.

Here is a compilation of some animations that made me cry really hard. Do you also sometimes cry while watching animated movies?

Finding Nemo

My first suggestion is Finding Nemo.

Sadness is esentially built into the plot of this animation. After all, it tells the story of Marlin, whose son Nemo has gone missing, and was actually kidnapped by a group of divers. The distraught dad sets out to find his beloved child. What’s more, early in the film, the viewer is also confronted with the theme of death. As a result of a shark attack, Marlin loses his wife and almost all of his children. Only Nemo escapes with his life.

It is the death scene of Marlin’s family that is the saddest. What happens in it? Marlin’s wife swims out of the house and notices a shark in the distance. She immediately glances at her little ones. Marlin asks her to go home, Cora, however, swims sprinting to the children. This draws the attention of the shark, which promptly attacks Cora and the children. Marlin, who tried to fight the shark, loses consciousness, and when he regains it, he wakes up in a completely different world. His wife and children are gone. Only one toddler, whom Marlin calls Nemo, has survived. Exactly as his beloved wife wished.

Toy Story 3

I was a child when the first two entries of Toy Story were entering theaters. So the truth is that I grew up on this story, and when Andy says goodbye to his toys in part 3, my heart breaks. And probably if you, too, grew up on Toy Story, you, like me, find it impossible to stop yourself from crying while watching this part.

So many people grew up with the movies and thus identified with little Andy and Woody, that when the now grown-up Andy decides to donate his box of toys to Bonnie at the end of Toy Story 3, it breaks the hearts of us all and we feel like he’s leaving us too. Andy plays with his beloved old playmates one last time before leaving them on Bonnie’s porch and heading off to college. Woody then sadly bids Andy farewell as Andy drives off into the sunset, and the viewer begins to cry. Especially one like me, who grew up with Andy, so when it comes to saying goodbye to Andy, in a way I am also saying goodbye to my childhood. Well, can you not cry?

Shrek

Shrek – the funniest, but also the saddest fairy tale? There’s something about it, because although I’ve seen it hundreds of times, I always shed a tear during Shrek and Donkey’s dialogue in the moonlight.

Shrek and Donkey are watching the stars, and Donkey asks a question that throws Shrek off balance. Donkey asks what they are going to do in their swamp once they free the princess. Shrek replies that there is no “them.” He firmly states that there is only his swamp and he intends to stake out. Donkey asks who Shrek wants to stake out from. Shrek replies that from everyone, because the world runs away at the sight of him, ridicules him, rejects him and judges him, although it knows nothing about him. Finally, he still says with sadness in his eyes that this is why he is alone. Donkey replies that he never looked at Shrek like that. At this point a sincere friendship is born between the two.

This scene is both sad and touching. Sad because it shows how hurtful it is to hastily judge or ridicule someone for their differences. Touching, because if we understand that we can’t take everything personally and it’s worth opening up to others, then, like Shrek, we will find someone like Donkey who will always love us.

Hair Love

Hair Love is an Oscar-winning animated short.

The cartoon tells the story of a father who learns to comb his several-year-old daughter’s hair for the first time. And, as you can probably guess, it goes moderately well, so he gives up. This breaks the heart of his daughter, who runs away from him crying. At the same moment, our hearts break too, and just as quickly as the girl’s cat we nod in disapproval at the father’s behavior. However, we quickly smile, because it turns out that the fairy tale has a happy ending.

I won’t give away the ending – I’ve posted the entire video (7 minutes) and encourage you to watch it. Especially since the short offers much more. It is simply about the fact that in love all you need to do is want, and it will be fine.

Lady and the Tramp

As an animal lover, I admit that one of the most painful scenes I’ve ever seen in an animated film is the shelter scene in Lady and the Tramp. In this scene, we see howling dogs who are sad because none of them have been adopted yet. We see them crying, whimpering and lying on the ground. To make matters worse, these dogs never left the shelter at the end of the film. I swear that every time I see this scene, or even think about it, my heart goes out to them. Perhaps that’s why Lady and the Tramp has never been my favorite animated movie.

Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 is one of the best animations I’ve seen in recent years. It was based on the comic books (of the same name) about a group of superheroes. The animation tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a robotics genius, and Baymax, a medical robot created by Hiro’s older brother.

This is not a spoiler, as you could read about it in many of the film’s descriptions, so I’ll mention it because it is the saddest part of this animation. Hiro’s brother dies, and Hiro decides to defeat the villain responsible for his death.

Tadashi’s death is especially sad because of how close Tadashi was with Hiro and how unexpected it all is. Tadashi dies after running into the burning exhibition building to save Professor Callaghan. Tadashi is so well introduced in the film that when the building explodes and he is still in it, the audience’s heart breaks.

Martyna Janasik

Cultural studies scholar and writer. Enthusiast of food, cinema, and sports. Probably that's why some of her favorite movies are "Rocky" and "Julie and Julia". She always wanted to write, so she will always write. In her free time, she loves watching movies and playing tennis.

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